Updated 8:35 am on June 6

This May, the four Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) milk pricing benchmarks fell just one penny short of achieving the first ever $25-plus-across-the-board milk price in U.S. history. The one penny shortfall came when Class IV milk posted a $24.99 per hundredweight (cwt.) payout as announced on Thursday, June 2, 2022, by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). One month earlier, the Class IV butter-powder price had achieved a record $25.31 payout.

As stated earlier, an across the board $25, $25, $25, and $25 milk price has never been achieved in the history of U.S. milk pricing. Here’s how close the dairy community came to achieving this unprecedented milestone in May:

• Class I base price — $25.45
• Class II — $25.87
• Class III — $25.21
• Class IV — $24.99

A historic high point

While Class IV reached a new record this April at $25.31, Class III posted a new milestone in May with the $25.21 payout. The previous $24.60 record had stood since September 2014. That’s the same month Class II posted a hallmark $26.11 payout.

Given this May’s class milk prices, the All-Milk price for that month also will post a new record for a third straight month. However, that statement will not become official until USDA announces that value on June 30, 2022, in Agricultural Prices. To learn more about those trends read, “April’s All-Milk price tops record by $1.20.”

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2022June 6, 2022